Image courtesy of Rob Kinnaird

The only time I ever went to the principal’s office in elementary school was in the sixth grade after my two friends and I requested a meeting with our school’s leader. As overly confident 11-year-olds, we marched into the office, took a seat and began our business pitch for a school newspaper because “our voices weren’t being heard.” 

Looking back on it I see that now, as a soon-to-be college graduate, I have so much in common with my young self. A passion for telling the truth and telling stories that would otherwise go unnoticed has always driven me.

During my time with this newspaper I have written dozens of articles across all sections on an array of topics. I interviewed a student working to combat food insecurity on campus. As news editor, I sat down with newly appointed faculty and asked about their plans for bettering the Hofstra community. I met with Public Safety weekly and took down the briefs for an entire year. I recently talked with the head coach of men’s basketball and discussed everything from recruitment to his family. I covered countless events that taught me more than I could have imagined. 

I hate that the expression “the real world” is used to describe life post-grad. Student journalism is the “real world.” We are challenged daily. We produce content amid our course loads, internships, part time jobs, social lives and our commitments to various other organizations. We do it without pay. We do it without earning credit. We report on the communities we are living in. We sit in class next to the students we have quietly and carefully been investigating for months. It’s tough and thankless work but it’s more rewarding than I can ever explain. 

Aside from the lighthearted pieces written under my byline, I also saw how challenging and difficult this job can be. I wrote obituaries for classmates and faculty members taken too soon. I interviewed students who felt their voices were being suffocated on campus as they trusted me with their deepest secrets. And most recently, I talked to victims of hazing as they recalled the most horrible moments of their lives. These experiences are “real world” experiences. These stories challenged me more as a person and a journalist than any exam or assignment. These stories break your heart to listen to and break your heart to write, but just when you think you can’t do it, something clicks. You realize what a gift it is that sources are trusting you and your abilities. It then becomes your coveted duty to make their voices heard. 

Leading this paper for the past year gave me a front row seat to the incredible work that goes on within the walls of our quaint and disorganized office. Each member has taught me something over the course of my tenure and I’ve constantly been in awe of the work that gets produced, edited and published each week. Those who came before me and those who will follow my lead had a hand in making me the journalist, leader and person I am today. I know I’m leaving this paper in the best hands and while it is bittersweet, I feel fulfilled and ready to pass it on and watch from afar as the rest of you take the paper to new and exciting heights.

To our advisers Denise Boneta and Professor Peter Goodman; Dean Mark Lukasiewicz, Dean Adria Marlowe, David Henne and everyone at the Herbert School; the Student Government Association; Karla Schuster and the team at University Relations; Colin Sullivan and everyone in Student Affairs; the staff at Hofstra Athletics and the rest of the university, thank you for your continuous and unending support. Your attention to our emails, meetings and last-minute questions mean more to me and this paper than I can express. 

To this year’s Managing Editors Jill Leavey and Rachel Bowman, I can never thank you enough for your patience, talent and dedication to my craziness and to this paper. Working alongside the both of you over the course of this year was an experience I’ll cherish forever.

And to Felipe Fontes and Rachel, my fellow seniors, this is definitely not how we expected to close out this important and fulfilling chapter. I’m grateful for your support and devotion to this paper, for your natural leadership and most importantly, for your friendship. I wish more than anything that we were together in the office, ending it like we planned and taking it all in one more time. 

I’m terrible at goodbyes. I’ve always hated them, but it’s especially hard for me to say goodbye from a distance due to our current circumstances. It feels odd to be saying such a formal farewell to people I can’t forget and to something that will be part of me forever. 

So instead of goodbye, I’m leaving behind some advice that I’ve gathered within the brick walls of Student Center 203. Continue the uphill battle for the truth, no matter how hard it is and no matter how many people knock you down, deny you or criticize your talents. Continue to be confident in the quest to hold people and organizations accountable. Continue to understand the massive weight this paper carries on campus and never take our independence for granted. May you always try and embody my awkward 11-year-old self in that meeting with my principal, advocating for the voiceless. 

Lastly, never forget the power this paper has and its ability to change lives. It sure changed mine.